What snow? They are predicting light snow for Sunday, and say that they can't completely exclude some snow on Tuesday. Are you thinking of the U.K. or of Israel?

Talking of Israel, this is a great chance for kabbalists who have engaged in homosexual intercouse to atone:

According to Luria's most important disciple, Rabbi Hayyim Vital, Luria had instructed three of his followers how to practice the tikkun, or specific spiritual correction, for having sinned by engaging in homosexual intercourse. This remedy is not for the weak, as it requires 233 days of fasting, 161 of which are to be accompanied by what is known as tikkun gilgul sheleg -- immersing oneself naked in the snow and rolling, front and back, nine times.

I only hope that the rate of precipitation picks up. The lakes are low and we are in moderate drought. But the lows are remaining above 5C, so not too bad and I have put out the glass rain gauge for now. We might get some sleet Monday.

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

I am currently reliving one of the more odd parts of my youth. I used to attend a whole series of rock discos which flourished in Manchester from the mid 70s to mid 80s.

Somebody thought to take pretty good quality recordings of one of those nights and I'm currently listening to it. I was probably there on that night (where else would I have been?) but it was at a period where I was "not playing well with others" and so was probably drunk somewhere annoying someone.

Even tho' the recording is from past the period I think of as the glory days, it's a reminder of what dragged me back time and again

Never into the club scene. Being jammed into a smoky teeny-tiny room with hundreds of strangers having my ears melted by music I didn't like in the first place constitutes my idea of the innermost 7th Circle of Hell.

Well, whilst Jillys probably fulfilled that criterion, I'm less convinced about the others. UMIST was at a large hall with about 800 - 1000 regulars (it never felt packed) as we more or less had the run of the whole building.

And I mostly went for the music, if I didn't like it I wouldn't have gone. But as with all these things there was a generational change and the "kids" wanted bland American hair metal and southern boogie which I mostly couldn't have given a toss about. So there was a decreasing amount of that which I did like.

Here is a mighty fine recording by the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra of Tabula Rasa, composed by Arvo Pärt.

Note: for those who didn't follow the link, the unusual sounds in the composition are made by a prepared piano: a piano that has had its sound altered by placing objects between/on the strings and/or between/on the hammers and/or dampers.

Which reminds me that in 1968 in Brasilia I talked at length a Turkish professor who said the 'marriage' ceremonies and language of some of the Amazonian tribes were anthropologically synchronous. He was heading back into the Matto Grosso for more research. I was heading for the Xingu.

But I always think of him whenever there is connection made between the Mid-East cultures and South America - such as the traces of cocaine found in 3000 year old Egyptian mummies, when the coca plant was unknown in Africa. Though there are some who doubt.

Nothing impossible about Phoenician trade to South America. They had ocean going ships and a decidedly hush-hush approach to releasing where, exactly, they got the high-valued stuff they peddled. Tin being a good example. We know they sailed down the coast of Africa. Get a ship in the right place, at the wrong time, and it's almost impossible to not ending up in Brazil.

Smells off to me. The presence of the word "race" in the URL is a bit of a giveaway. Whether or not there is anything interesting in the "Ancient African terracotta portraits 1000 B.C. to 500 B.C." section, the site itself is blown out of the water by the preceding paragraph :

The earliest people in the Americas were people of the Negritic African race, who entered the Americas perhaps as early as 100,000 years ago, by way of the bering straight and about thirty thousand years ago in a worldwide maritime undertaking that included journeys from the then wet and lake filled Sahara towards the Indian Ocean and the Pacific, and from West Africa across the Atlantic Ocean towards the Americas. According to the Gladwin Thesis, this ancient journey occurred, particularly about 75,000 years ago and included Black Pygmies, Black Negritic peoples and Black Australoids similar to the Aboriginal Black people of Australia and parts of Asia, including India.

The implication of commonality between Australoids, "Negritic" peoples and others on account of being "Black" (note the capital) isn't even worth debunking, because there's no science there.

It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue
- Queen Elizabeth II

In Russia, beer (Russian: пиво pivo) is the second most popular alcoholic drink after vodka, seen by many as a healthier alternative. The average Russian drank about 12.5 liters of alcohol in 2010, with vodka accounting for more than five liters and beer about four liters.

I guess gk's figures are of litres of alcohol, not of the actual drink. i.e. 4 litres alcohol gives something like 80 litres of beer. To be as low as your 24 litres cite, they'd need to be drinking it at 15% alcohol or so.

OOOps. Having checked your link, Kirin cites 66 litres of beer per year, not 26, so more or less compatible with gk's numbers.

I like the idea of "beer is healthier than vodka". For some reason it reminds me of a Goon Show dialogue :

Here, have a gorilla.

No thanks, they're too strong for me.

Try one of my monkeys, they're milder.

It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue
- Queen Elizabeth II

Plus, it is difficult to drink much more than 6 litres in a night, approx 15 measures, because of the bulk of the liquid. Conversely, 15 measures of vodka is something than can be comfortably achieved without effort in terms of physical consumption and so further intoxication can take place.

Well, for sure, beer is liquid calories, much more so than vodka : a much bigger proportion of the alcohol is liable to be metabolised rather than excreted. That's one reason why I'm a bit sceptical about overall health benefits, as a high proportion of regular beer drinkers are overweight, with negative health consequences.

But is industrial beer indeed liquid bread? Talking about the bulk stuff that the bulk of (bulky) people actually drink, not the authentic brews consumed by connaisseurs like yourself?

This is a genuine question, not a provocation.

It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue
- Queen Elizabeth II

Security types in 'Schland have announced serious new holes discovered in Java and Flash. They recommend for all users to immediately upgrade Flash to 11.5.502.146, and disable Java until the upgrade comes out. I'm no nerd to be able to judge, but the warning was serious, including for Mac.

I am reminded of the evolutionary dead-end that occurs when mutation wraps a brain around a throat, thus limiting neuronal expansion due to throttling. Another etymologistic for 'a liquid diet'.

But what the hell, there'll always be another species ready to take over. The ants have done pretty well with their system of cloned self-organization. I can't imagine what it would be like to be an externally organized ant, but I doubt if boredom comes into it.

It's funny how sometimes nothing happens for months and months and then everything kicks off at once. Thus it is with trans issues in the UK.

One is fairly routine so, even tho' a lot of heat is being expended, it really only matters within the community.

However, the other is a classic example of how, when things go wrong in a dispute early on, it is impossible to pull it back.

Suzanne Moore, a well known feminist journalist, wrote a very good article about female rage for the new Statesman. However, in the midst of it, and, in my opinion, in complete ignorance of the privilege and prejudice she was displaying, made a rather lamentable crack about Brazilian transsexuals.

However, there people within the trans community who, far too used to responding to vilification from genuine haters, have become just a bit too willing to pile in on any whiff of suspected transphobia. And pile they duly did,, calling her transphobic and a racist.

Given the tone of the initial attacks, I can personally sympathise with why the journo responded that it was throwaway line entirely irrelevant to the argument within the essay. Nobody explained what the problem was, they just shouted at her. This is not a good way to get somebody to change their behaviour.

As Jay Smooth said here;-

You have to remember the difference between the "what they did" conversation and the "what they are" conversation. [....] One focuses on the actions and words while the other goes further to infer motivations from those words and imply things about their character which you cannot prove and are only guessing at. You. Do. Not Want. To. Be. Having. That. Conversation."

Which, if you follow the whole sorry saga, gets entirely forgotten. Now Moore has written a follow up article, as has her pal, Julie Bindel, wailing at how teh nasty trans are oppressing her and she has only her pulpit at at a national newspaper and magazine plus various high footfall blogs. Meanwhile the entire online trans community is united in outrage and self-righteousness.

Perhaps it's his war record. He was decorated for valor in the Vietnam War (which I detested). He was a mere sergeant. Since I was a mere corporal in our 1948 war, I find it elating to see a non-commissioned officer become Minister of Defense.

Like so many veterans who have seen war from close up (myself included), he has become an enemy of war. Wonderful.

[...]

But the catalogue of Hagel's crimes is much more extensive.

Many years ago he called the pro-Israeli lobby in Washington (would you believe it?) the "Jewish lobby". Until then, it was understood that AIPAC is mainly composed of Buddhists and financed by Arab billionaires like Abu Sheldon and Abel al-Adelson.